...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins

First edition of this intriguing photographic sequence of a cock fight-uncharacteristic of LeWitt.

“LeWitt has never forsaken the fundamental approach that he developed in the 1960s, emphasizing ideas over psychological expression… Over the years, however, his work has grown more complex in its effect and more complicated in its execution. The work from the 1960s is the most austere and straightforward, while work from the 1970s inventively compounds the ideas and forms of the prior decade. The early 1980s saw a marked shift involving sensual color and surfaces, and a more explicitly expressive overall character” (San Francisco MoMA). This collection of images of a cock fight fits this latter style, but is nonetheless quite different from his other works of the same period. His current style of using grids is thought to be “as important for drawing as Pollock’s use of the drip technique had been for painting in the 1950s” (Bernice Rose).

The exhibition SOL LEWITT. Artist's Books opening at Art Laboratory Berlin on 21 January presents the complete oeuvre of 75 artists' books produced by the American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, dating from 1967 to 2002. This exhibition pays tribute to the unique bibliophile production of the artist, who died in 2007.

The American artist Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007) was an influential figure in minimalism and is considered one of the most important representatives as well as co-founder of American conceptual art. The term "conceptual art" goes directly back to LeWitt: "If the artist carries through his idea and makes it into visible form, then all the steps in the process are of importance. The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product. All intervening steps - scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed works, models, studies, thoughts, conversations - are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product." (Paragraphs, Artforum, June 1967)

LeWitt's intensive artist books production was extremely versatile: he used different designs and formats as well as varied techniques from color lithography to offset printing. Finally the phenomena of reproducibility was part of the concept: "Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced." (ibid.)

First edition of this intriguing photographic sequence of a cock fight-uncharacteristic of LeWitt.

“LeWitt has never forsaken the fundamental approach that he developed in the 1960s, emphasizing ideas over psychological expression… Over the years, however, his work has grown more complex in its effect and more complicated in its execution. The work from the 1960s is the most austere and straightforward, while work from the 1970s inventively compounds the ideas and forms of the prior decade. The early 1980s saw a marked shift involving sensual color and surfaces, and a more explicitly expressive overall character” (San Francisco MoMA). This collection of images of a cock fight fits this latter style, but is nonetheless quite different from his other works of the same period. His current style of using grids is thought to be “as important for drawing as Pollock’s use of the drip technique had been for painting in the 1950s” (Bernice Rose).

The exhibition SOL LEWITT. Artist's Books opening at Art Laboratory Berlin on 21 January presents the complete oeuvre of 75 artists' books produced by the American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt, dating from 1967 to 2002. This exhibition pays tribute to the unique bibliophile production of the artist, who died in 2007.

The American artist Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007) was an influential figure in minimalism and is considered one of the most important representatives as well as co-founder of American conceptual art. The term "conceptual art" goes directly back to LeWitt: "If the artist carries through his idea and makes it into visible form, then all the steps in the process are of importance. The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product. All intervening steps - scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed works, models, studies, thoughts, conversations - are of interest. Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product." (Paragraphs, Artforum, June 1967)

LeWitt's intensive artist books production was extremely versatile: he used different designs and formats as well as varied techniques from color lithography to offset printing. Finally the phenomena of reproducibility was part of the concept: "Also, since art is a vehicle for the transmission of ideas through form, the reproduction of the form only reinforces the concept. It is the idea that is being reproduced." (ibid.)

zondag 30 oktober 2011

2300 photographs by Breitner online from November

The RKD is publishing the first digital overview in English of photographs by the Amsterdam Impressionist painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923). A total of 2,300 original photos from the RKD collection will be accessible to an international audience from November 2011.

Until now Breitner’s photos have primarily been presented as studies for his paintings. However, the photographs are also fine and important works of art in their own right and they offer a unique picture of city life around 1900.

Breitner’s original prints and negatives were donated to the RKD in 1961, exactly 50 years ago. Before then it was not known that Breitner, besides being a painter, was also an important photographer. Individual photos have regularly been included in exhibitions and publications. In 2011 high-resolution scans were produced of all the photographs so that the originals can be safely stored in optimal conditions.

A new online publication will make all 2,300 photographs available to the public for the first time. An introductory text by photographic historian Hans Rooseboom, curator of the Rijksmuseum, discusses the importance of Breitner’s photographic oeuvre. In order to acquaint a wide, international audience with Breitner the photographer, the publication will appear in English as well as Dutch. George Hendrik Breitner. Fotograaf /George Hendrik Breitner. Photographer will be published on the RKD website in November 2011.

Coinciding with the online publication of Breitner’s photographs, the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam) will host the exhibitionSnapshot. Painters and Photography, 1888-1915(from 14 October), in which Breitner’s work is for the first time presented in the context of other nineteenth-century painters ( Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri Evenepoel, Henri Rivière, Felix Valloton en Edouard Vuillard ) who liked to use the camera. Thereafter the exhibition will be on view in the US, at the Phillips Collection (Washington D.C.) and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In collaboration with the Rijksmuseum the Institut Néerlandais (Paris) is also dedicating an exhibition to Breitner’s photographic work, George Hendrik Breitner – Pioneer of street photography, opening in November.

2300 photographs by Breitner online from November

The RKD is publishing the first digital overview in English of photographs by the Amsterdam Impressionist painter George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923). A total of 2,300 original photos from the RKD collection will be accessible to an international audience from November 2011.

Until now Breitner’s photos have primarily been presented as studies for his paintings. However, the photographs are also fine and important works of art in their own right and they offer a unique picture of city life around 1900.

Breitner’s original prints and negatives were donated to the RKD in 1961, exactly 50 years ago. Before then it was not known that Breitner, besides being a painter, was also an important photographer. Individual photos have regularly been included in exhibitions and publications. In 2011 high-resolution scans were produced of all the photographs so that the originals can be safely stored in optimal conditions.

A new online publication will make all 2,300 photographs available to the public for the first time. An introductory text by photographic historian Hans Rooseboom, curator of the Rijksmuseum, discusses the importance of Breitner’s photographic oeuvre. In order to acquaint a wide, international audience with Breitner the photographer, the publication will appear in English as well as Dutch. George Hendrik Breitner. Fotograaf /George Hendrik Breitner. Photographer will be published on the RKD website in November 2011.

Coinciding with the online publication of Breitner’s photographs, the Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam) will host the exhibitionSnapshot. Painters and Photography, 1888-1915(from 14 October), in which Breitner’s work is for the first time presented in the context of other nineteenth-century painters ( Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Henri Evenepoel, Henri Rivière, Felix Valloton en Edouard Vuillard ) who liked to use the camera. Thereafter the exhibition will be on view in the US, at the Phillips Collection (Washington D.C.) and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. In collaboration with the Rijksmuseum the Institut Néerlandais (Paris) is also dedicating an exhibition to Breitner’s photographic work, George Hendrik Breitner – Pioneer of street photography, opening in November.

zaterdag 29 oktober 2011

Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8th, 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He lives in Paris. Having studied economics, Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in 1973 in Paris, working with the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos until 1994, when he and Lélia Wanick Salgado formed Amazonas images, an agency created exclusively for his work.

He has travelled in over 100 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these, besides appearing in numerous press publications, have also been presented in books such as Other Americas (1986),Sahel: l’homme en détresse (1986), Sahel: el fin del camino (1988), Workers (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations and Portraits (2000), and Africa (2007). Touring exhibitions of this work have been, and continue to be, presented throughout the world.

Sebastião Salgado has been awarded numerous major photographic prizes in recognition of his accomplishments. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States.

Gerry Badger is a photographer, architect, and photographic critic. He has written extensively for the photographic press, and has curated a number of exhibitions, including 'The Photographer as Printmaker' (1980) for the Arts Council of Great Britain, and 'Through the Looking Glass: Post-war British Photography' (1989) for the Barbican Arts Centre, London.

His own work is in a number of public and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Arts Council Collection, and The Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.

He has written introductory essays to many photographic monographs, including those of such photographers as Stephen Shore, John Gossage, Martin Parr and Chris Killip. Among his books are 'Collecting Photography' (2002), 'The Genius of Photography' (2007), and (with Martin Parr), 'The Photobook: A History' (2 vols.,)